He's pushing himself through a 19th pre-season under his 13th manager but Lewis Stevenson insists he’ll never get tired of pounding the hard yards for Hibs.
From being taken to breaking point by Mixu Paatelainen’s death runs, diving through smoke bombs at army boot camps under Colin Calderwood and now sweating in heat bombs in southern Spain with Lee Johnson the Leith left back has seen it all.
For the average Joe the mental and physical toil would be way beyond the comfort zone. But Stevenson is no average specimen and insists he is ENJOYING the triple sessions in 35C Marbella furnace. And he certainly hopes this won’t be his last. It’s that attitude that’s kept the 35-year-old at the forefront for the Easter Road outfit for two decades and seen him become the club’s record league appearance holder last season. And he’s not done yet. Not by a long shot.
Stevenson said: “People have been asking me how many I’ve done. It’s mad, they don’t get any easier. They’ve probably changed a little bit over the years, with sport science it’s all different now. It’s been good, it’s been tough.
“It’s even harder in this heat! I did a few army ones, that was with Colin Calderwood. Mixu’s were always tough. But it’s hard to distinguish because there have been so many! The army ones were character building. I think the army boys wanted to see if they could break you.
“Physically we were usually not bad at stuff like smoke bombs, where you go under the tunnels. But again I think it was a mental thing. They were good.
“Tony Mowbray was my first one, that was more football based, which was a big learning curve because I went straight from school to do that. The difference now it is a lot more science based and controlled. There are a lot more parameters they look for and they can tell you if you’re doing too much or too less.
“In the past it felt more like runs that were almost impossible to finish. It was almost more of a mental challenge, the gaffer trying to see how resilient you were. I’m still enjoying it, I still feel pretty good, so hopefully I still have another one in me after this!”
Stevenson sits fourth on Hibs’ all-time record appearances chart with 576 in all competitions - 41 behind the legendary Pat Stanton in third. He’s 60 off Gordon Smith with the Famous Five icon top of the tree on 636.
But Stevenson only has eyes on the next game. Then he’ll target the next after that. He said: “Every time I play a game Daz McGregor says ‘that’s you up to blah blah blah..’
“I think he’s the one that keeps stats updated! He looks at it more than me. I genuinely don’t look at it. You can stop very suddenly so you don’t want to give yourself too many targets.
“The only targets I need are staying fit and trying to do things and do them well in games.”
Stevenson’s not even the old head of the outfield contingent at Easter Road any more thanks to the signing of veteran striker Adam Le Fondre. The 36-year-old marksman has hit the ground running and nabbed his first Hibs goal in Saturday’s 2-0 friendly win over FC Europa.
He’s one of six summer signings and Stevenson insists Hibs are in good shape for the season kicking off for real with a Conference League qualifier in just over two weeks’ time.
He said: “It seems a lot more settled. There’s not been as many ins and outs. We have players who know how we want to play and are familiar with each other and not just chucked in first game of the season.
“Adam has a year on me so that gives me hope! But you just play the short game, concentrate on small targets and see how it goes. Adam looks in good nick. He’s played a lot of games at a good level and has that savvy. He’s a clever player.
“His movement in the box and the number of goals he has scored at different levels of the game show he can adapt. You can learn off strikers, how they move and physically there’s a lot of gym work he does that he says helps keep him fit, strong and keeps the old bones going. I’ll take every bit of advice I can from people like that.”
Another of the new boys, Jordan Obita, admitted in his first interview this week that he was up for the challenge of trying to dislodge the legend that is Stevenson.
But that’s old hat to a player who has lost count of the number of left-backs he seen come and go during his reign.
He said: “Jordan’s a lovely guy, good quality on the ball and has everything to do well in this league. He looks good in training and I’m sure we’ll be battling for the spot. I’ve been here before. I’m just here to do the best I can and see where it takes me.
“Squad depth is important. I definitely don’t expect to play every single game. I’m pretty sure the manager knows what I can do now and he can rely on me in certain games. Hopefully that will be the case this season.”
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